Ken Blackwell | All Articles

Ken Blackwell

Ken Blackwell, a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, is a member of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty's board, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council, and Ohio's former secretary of state.

Boeing and General Electric (GE) have been throwing all they’ve got behind the reauthorization of the United States Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im), set to expire this week. That shouldn’t come as much of a shock, considering they are the top two recipients of taxpayer-backed loan guarantees for foreign countries and companies to purchase their products. The bank is nothing but welfare for America’s largest, most successful corporations, and it’s time for taxpayers to stop footing the bill.

It’s like the movie "Groundhog Day." We are condemned to be forever repeating the same old things, but with slight variations and plot twists. Endlessly. That’s what it’s like watching that Golden Oldie, Hillary Clinton.

House Foreign Relations Chairman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) recently briefed members of the Israel Allies Caucus on Capitol Hill.He spoke to supporters about Iran. Leading off with a question from decades ago: "What distinguishes the United States' nuclear missile arsenal from that of the Soviet Union?"

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, an expected GOP presidential candidate, drew the ire of the political right and left recently over his comments on immigration. When it comes to the immigration issue, Republicans are expected to use the tried and true, consultant tested “secure the border” talking point and move on to other issues.

Speaker John Boehner recently made headlines by joining the growing chorus among conservatives on Capitol Hill calling for a “wind down” of the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im) – signaling he might be open to a plan by U.S. House Republicans to bring the New Deal-era program of economic cronyism to an end.

“All we're saying is we're not going to deport you," was the big lie President Barack Obama used when he announced his executive action on immigration. Despite being repeated time and again by politicians and the media during the DHS funding debate to describe the president’s action, it’s still a lie.

As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to consider whether to overturn the marriage laws of all the states — as some activist federal judges have already done in some of the states -- conservatives are naturally calling for judicial restraint. We must warn the court against another exercise of “raw judicial power” like that handed down with its infamous 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. That cruel and unjust ruling is viewed as illegitimate by tens of millions of Americans. Young people especially are turning against abortion-on-demand. We see this in every pro-life march. And this public outcry is being translated into a bumper crop of pro-life legislation bubbling up in state legislatures.

There’s an old saying that all politics is local. If that is the case, it should follow that local politicians should be among the best informed, armed with ironclad facts as they weigh in on issues that affect not only their areas, but the nation as a whole. The U.S. Conference of Mayors, however, has generated some confusion recently by throwing their support behind the embattled Export-Import Bank of the United States – apparently on the strength of some questionable data.

With the new year comes a new Congress, and, as always, energy policy will be a major priority for this 114th session. Now that Republicans have regained control of both the Senate and the House, and with President Obama looking to establish his legacy, there is a unique opportunity to build positive momentum on energy security and reduce America’s vulnerability to the historically volatile oil market.

After six years of Barack Obama and his Democrat allies in Congress pledging to “fix” every sector of the economy with one-size-fits-all Washington “solutions” (and failing miserably), you will never guess what some Republicans in Washington are planning to do in January when they get complete control of Capitol Hill. If you guessed that they’re planning to join the White House legislate a government takeover of another sector of our economy, you would be right.

Now that President Barack Obama announced his intentions to violate the Constitution and grant amnesty to 5 million illegal immigrants through executive amnesty, Congress is in a rush to respond. Obama's actions are a threat to the America's democracy, and it is up to the American people to demand enforcement of America's immigration laws.

With already dismal approval ratings, this has been the most difficult month for President Barack Obama yet. After voters from coast to coast soundly rejected Obama-supporting Democrats on election day, video was leaked of left-wing economist Jonathan Gruber -- the chief architect of Obamacare -- admitting that the sweeping health care bill became law because Americans are "stupid."

Tavis Smiley raised a lot of eyebrows this weekend when he spoke on ABC-TV’s “This Week” news show, hosted by George Stephanopoulos. Smiley pointed to double-digit unemployment in the black community under President Obama and said: “If you’re black or brown, other than saving the Democrats’ hide, what inspires you to go out and vote?”

Buried inside of the 20,000 pages of the Obamacare monstrosity are a few paragraphs which could create a multi-billion dollar industry in the American healthcare sector. Known as "biosimilars," the law allowed for the production of complex drugs which are medically equivalent versions of biologics (drugs derived from living organisms), and can treat deadly diseases ranging from Alzheimer's, AIDS, and rheumatoid arthritis.

Historically, Democrats have been politically vulnerable on military issues. The recent missteps President Barack Obama has made in dealing with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and the situation in Syria are hurting his party’s chances for keeping control of the Senate in the next Congress. Another problem for the president and congressional Democrats, is having to spend the 2014 election cycle explaining to voters why our veterans hospitals are government-run healthcare disasters. In Phoenix, Veterans Administration secretary Robert McDonald acknowledged that secret waiting lists and bad care needlessly “caused the death of veterans.”